New College commits to creating great opportunities for students | Opinion

The transfer of the campus of USF-Sarasota to New College of Florida and the continuing growth of New College will provide ever-increasing opportunities for our students and our community. New College is leading the way in providing liberal arts education that leads to great jobs, and an important addition to our burgeoning profile of new initiatives will be the development of a unique liberal arts program in hospitality here in Sarasota.

The transfer includes a multi-year teach-out that guarantees that USF Sarasota-Manatee hospitality students will finish their degrees under USF’s stewardship. At the same time, New College will begin integrating the campus into its academic vision. From the outset, we intend to sustain and strengthen the partnerships USF SM has built with local businesses, ensuring that those relationships continue to serve students and the regional economy without interruption. New College’s new and innovative hospitality program will combine the traditional strengths of the liberal arts with the skills industry leaders tell us they look for in employees.

Hospitality is one of the pillars of Florida’s economy. At its highest level, hospitality requires leadership, cultural intelligence, strategic judgment, and the ability to design meaningful experiences. That requires more than technical training; it requires intellectual depth. The study of the greatest thinkers and greatest ideas that is the hallmark of liberal arts learning leads to success in any field. In our Bachelor of Arts in Hospitality, students will draw from history to understand institutional development, from economics to analyze markets, and from psychology and sociology to lead teams effectively. They will study languages, ethics, communication, and data analytics, not as add-ons, but as core competencies. In an industry defined by rapid change, the leaders who succeed will be those who can think critically, adapt quickly, and build organizations that are both profitable and principled.

Students in our program will be working in the real world. New College will continue its long tradition of independent study and experiential learning, with internships, partnerships, and applied work. A semester abroad in Paris, Florence, or London will introduce students to international standards of hospitality, and we will finish with a capstone that forces students to build something real. Students will have to develop an original hospitality concept, a leadership strategy, and an experience model they can defend and actually take into the field.

Sarasota-Manatee is one of the most hospitality-dense regions in the country, and Florida as a whole runs on this industry. It makes sense that hospitality education should be strong here, and New College of Florida has all the tools to make that happen.

The transfer of the USF-Sarasota campus to New College of Florida will represent an important step in the continued evolution of higher education in our region. It allows USF to concentrate its resources on its major campuses in Tampa and St. Petersburg, where it has built significant momentum and scale, and it will give New College the opportunity to strengthen its institutional footprint in Sarasota and more fully align its academic programs with the needs and opportunities of our community.

There is room in this region for more than one model of hospitality education. While USF sustains its respected programs in Tampa and St. Petersburg, New College will bring forward a distinctive Sarasota-based approach, one that integrates liberal arts inquiry with the practical needs of local businesses. Under this model, both institutions strengthen their missions. The real beneficiaries will be our students, our regional economy, and the state of Florida as a whole.

David Rohrbacher is provost and vice president of academic affairs at New College of Florida. He teaches Latin at all levels and Classical Civilization in all periods. He is also active in the concentrations in literature, medieval and Renaissance studies. He is a recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Society for Classical Studies, the premier organization for the study of Classics in North America.